Bias by Omission

In a "Fact Check" published Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press's Thomas Beaumont insisted that Donald Trump's September 16 statement that "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy," namely that then-candidate Barack Obama was not born in the United States, "is as untrue as his original lie." Some readers who don't get past Paragraph 3 might even believe that…

With the first presidential debate right around the corner CNN’s Brian Stelter amped up his call for debate moderators to be fact-checkers, during Sunday’s Reliable Sources. Of course, most of his concern is focused on Donald Trump with Hillary Clinton being an afterthought, seeing as he lambasted NBC’s Matt Lauer for not doing it. “Does a unique candidate like Donald Trump require a different…

Jorge Ramos ha encontrado un nuevo ángulo del candidato presidencial republicano Donald Trump que a él le parece lamentable.

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet is going on a victory tour among his liberal media colleagues, celebrating his paper “Calling Out Donald Trump’s Lies,” the title to Friday’s “Inside the Times” podcast hosted by Susan Lehman. After cueing up Trump’s claim that the Clinton campaign had started the “birther” myth, Baquet responded: “It was demonstrably, unequivocally false, and he had to…

In the presidential debate this coming Monday, Peter Beinart wants moderator Lester Holt to set a tone that the moderators of the subsequent debates would maintain. Each should “confront [Donald] Trump in ways they’ve never confronted a candidate before,” wrote Beinart earlier this week. “The more audaciously he lies, the more audaciously they must tell the truth. The risks of doing so are…

There’s a new aspect of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that Univision anchor Jorge Ramos finds deplorable. 

The absurd headline at a September 20 story at the New York Times is a sight to behold: "How Bad Off Is Oil-Rich Venezuela? It’s Buying U.S. Oil." As formulated, the headline is clearly meant to communicate something that is supposedly a surprising new development in that country, which, thanks to 17 years of Bolivarian socialist rule, has turned into a financially destitute humanitarian…

On Thursday's Morning Edition, National Public Radio host Steve Inskeep interviewed New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet regarding the paper’s provocative decision to overturn journalistic convention in the wake of Donald Trump’s success and to start reporting his alleged misstatements as “lies.” But when asked about HIllary, Baquet apparently forgot Clinton's 25 years of public…

Tuesday's edition of Noticiero Univision reminds us that there are other issues for which the network will take an activist stance beyond immigration. And gun control is at the very top of that list. After noting a $5 million ad campaign launched by the National Rifle Association in favor of Donald Trump, Anchor María Elena Salinas pivoted away from the ad itself and to Trump's statements in…

WASHINGTON — Did you see the interview over the weekend of a listless and, apparently, exhausted Hillary Clinton? Supposedly she has recovered from last week's bout with pneumonia, but she could have fooled me. Call me a hypochondriac, but in my opinion her recovery is not going very well.  

At a contentious impeachment hearing conducted by the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted that his agency targeted Tea Party groups looking to obtain tax-exempt status. “They were totally improper criteria used to select organizations, applying for c-4 designation for further review,” testified Koskinen before the committee, “Those organizations…

As Charlotte, North Carolina was being torn apart on Wednesday night, cable networks CNN, the Fox News Channel (FNC), and MSNBC offered wall-to-wall coverage of the carnage and tense scenes that, during the 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour, resulted in the one civilian being shot by another civilian and injuries to roughly a dozen police officers but MSNBC saw no reason in that hour to inform their viewers…

Terrifying news broke during CNN’s The Lead on Wednesday, as details of a chemical weapon attack against US troops at Qayyara Air Base in Iraq became known. “We do have some breaking news coming into CNN at this minute,” announced a concerned Jake Tapper, “US officials are telling CNN that the Pentagon suspects ISIS launched a chemical weapons attack against US and Iraqi troops.” The terrible…

Two weeks ago, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell said, as the Associated Press paraphrased it, that he "disagrees with Colin Kaepernick’s choice to kneel during the national anthem, but recognizes the quarterback’s right to protest." Sunday night, Goodell seemed to go all-in with the players, telling AP (again, accurately paraphrased) that he "is encouraged by the direction…